Let's start with the city itself: Ravenna was once the capital of Italy (the pope moved the capital from Rome when it was being invaded) and remained one of the cultural capitals for years after Rome was re-established. Because of this, and the v arious rulers that took up residence there, Ravenna houses many of Italy's finest mosaics. It is also the place that Dante lived and died after he was banished from Florence. When he died, the Florentines pardoned him (after realizing he would probably be a pretty cool guy to take credit for) and requested that his remains be returned to them. The ravennans(?) refused, and actually hid Dante's bones in the city so noone would find them. Today, when you visit, there is a small tomb/shrine built to Dante (the white building in the photo from the last post) which houses the actual remains (or so I believe) and a small park behind that building has at least half a dozen other tombs, all of them labelled "Dante".
We got there on Friday afternoon (After some train delays left us stranded in Bologna for a few hours) and immediately headed for the center of town. I walked with Lauren and Nick to the museums they wanted to visit and left them there- while they explored the tombs, crypts, and churches I hit the streets to see the parks and people. It was wonderful to just have a few hours to walk around and see things at my own pace. I ended up wandering to Dante's tomb, and settled on a bench in front of San Francesco's right behind the rear wall of the tomb. I spent the afternoon sketching and people watching, and finally met up with Lauren and Nick for a take-out pizza dinner.
I discovered that I love Ravenna. It's known as one of the bicycle towns in Italy, and that is the main form of transportation there. They even paved the street in two different colors of stone: white in the middle is the bike and car lane, the black on the outsides is for pedestrians. The people are generally friendly, there are open gardens everywhere, bright mosaics on all the public benches and monuments, and plenty of open spaces to soak up some sun and fresh air.
After dinner we walked to our hostel, which turned out to be a bit of an ordeal. After a short mishap with reading the map we took a 35 minute walk across the traintracks through a few neighborhoods that we all admitted later, had made us feel rather uncomfortable. I must admit, I was dismayed when Lauren pointed to a rather unimpressive, beige building next to a sketchy public park, indicating our hostel. My opinion of the place did a complete 180 once we got inside. There were bright yellow and orange walls, draped in random tapestries and various kinds of art from all different countries and even a hookah-bar style room. The only word we could all agree upon to describe it was "groovy".
After far too many rounds of "go fish" we called it an early night. The next morning we headed back across the train tracks and wandered around. Nick and Lauren went to visit Dante, and I went into San Francesco. The neat thing about San Francesco is that the ground under it is unstable. This means that the buildings in the area are slowly sinking; San Francesco's original mosaic floor is now under a few feet of water. They built a new floor probably about 10 feet above the original, with steps leading down to an opening to the water, which is showcased under the new pulpit. Its really very poetic.
After our separate adventures, the three of us met up on the benches lining the piazza outside the Basilica. Since we didn't know what else to do with the few hours we had before our train left, we spent our time on the steps, playing cards and eating lunch. Then we said a quick goodbye to Ravenna and took our trains back to Orvieto. We were lucky in our travels because the next day there was a railway workers strike, leaving 4 or 5 other students stranded in other parts of Italy.
Ravenna was a wonderful trip, I'm learning that I love the smaller towns the best (the only exception being Rome, which is completely captivating)
Also, since my camera died the second day, here are some snapshots from Lauren's:
above and below are both of the original floor of San Francesco
Thanks for another rich and interesting post. After having spent the morning gardening on this warm and breezy day, I'm going to go clean up, make a cafe latte, sit outside under a tree, and pretend I'm waiting for you to return from the museo;)
ReplyDeleteMiss you!